Belgian Actress Émilie Dequenne Dies at 43

Award-winning Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne has passed away at the age of 43 after a courageous battle with adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), a rare cancer of the adrenal gland.

Dequenne’s rise to fame began when she won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 for her role in the film “Rosetta” at just 18 years old.

She went on to win another Cannes award for “À Perdre la Raison” (Our Children) in 2012 and received a César award for “Les Choses Qu’on Dit, les Choses Qu’on Fait” (The Things We Say, the Things We Do) in 2021.

Dequenne’s breakout role in “Rosetta” was her first screen appearance, and it marked the beginning of a successful career in French-language cinema. She also appeared in the 2014 BBC TV drama “The Missing” alongside James Nesbitt.

Luc Dardenne, who directed “Rosetta” with his brother Jean-Pierre, paid tribute to Dequenne, saying: “The first day she filmed in front of a real camera, she managed to bring the whole team together. It got better and better as the shoot progressed… She was magnificent and the film owes a lot to her.”

French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati also paid tribute, writing: “Francophone cinema has lost, too soon, a talented actress who still had so much to offer.”

Dequenne revealed her cancer diagnosis in October 2023 and continued to share updates on her battle with the disease. In one of her last Instagram posts for World Cancer Day in February, she wrote: “What a tough fight! And we don’t choose…”